When I was a kid, banking was pretty basic. I’d grab my passbook, hop in the car with my parents, and head down to the branch. Once there, I’d fill out a withdrawal slip and wait in line. A few minutes later, I’d have enough cash in hand for a few trips to 7-11, and a new entry in my passbook. I could take out as much or as little as I wanted, and in any crazy denomination I requested.

Sometime in my teenage years, ATM’s and debit cards became popular. How convenient! Instead of going into the branch, I could drive through and get my 7-11 money. Unfortunately, it was soon after that the arbitrary restrictions began. Suddenly, there was only one bank left in town that would dispense anything smaller than a $20. Ironically, it seemed like I always had about $17 in my account. If it was late at night, and I really needed $20, I would find myself depositing $5 just so I could get back a full $20.

From those times back in the 90’s until now, a lot has changed. We’ve been told it’s for the better. Some of it I do understand. Cheques became obsolete in personal shopping due to fraud. The other thing that fraud did was limit how much money we could get out of an ATM, especially after making a deposit. Now, I don’t think I really tested the limits of this as a teenager, but I know that anything I deposited into my account at an ATM was immediately available. After x amount of people deposited an empty envelope into the ATM and pulled out $1000, they decided that this needed to be fixed. Now, at the banks that allow it, you can usually get about $200 back from what you deposit. The rest gets held for 7-10 business days.

The reason I’m writing all of this is because the limitations have become very frustrating to me recently.

As you can imagine, a big chunk of my day revolves around the banking system. I am constantly monitoring bank accounts for deposits and cheques clearing. The other thing I need to do a lot of is move money from one account to another. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes I need to move money from a chequing account to a credit card. Sometimes it’s money between accounts at different banks. Other times it’s making direct payments to vendors and staff, usually via email money transfers (or e-transfers as they’re now called). Over the past year this has become more and more difficult to pull off, and it’s taking up far too much of my day, simply because of arbitrary policies.

I’ll give you one example to illustrate my point. I’ve got a credit card at Bank A. I need to get money onto the card to pay a vendor. I’ve got money in a chequing account at Bank B. Let’s say the amount is $3000 that needs to go onto the credit card. Of the banks I’ve ever used, only 1 will let me move $3000 via e-transfer. It’s not Banks A or B. And, the banks that let you money $1000 or $2000 per day usually have a $7000-10000 monthly limit. This is just fine for most personal accounts, but completely useless in most product-reliant small businesses. And, this is a head office, written in stone policy. This isn’t like a credit limit on a Visa. You can’t talk to your branch and have them raise the limit. Trust me, I’ve tried. If Bank A has a limit of $7000 on monthly e-transfers, then that’s what it’s going to be.

Fine.

I’ll go down to the branch, get a draft for $3000 from Bank B, and deposit it into Bank A. A waste of 1 hour of my day, and $6.50. Guess what? Due to recent fraud worries, all banks in Canada treat a bank draft (you know, the guaranteed funds you pay an extra $6.50 to obtain) as a cheque, and now hold those funds for at least 5 business days.

What?

So, guess what my only option is now? Yep. I have to withdraw $3000 in cash…in front of a huge crowd of people, and then walk that money a few blocks away and deposit it into Bank A. I don’t think I have to tell you the risk of doing this, not to mention the looks I get from the bank employees for withdrawing large sums of cash.

Can I take it one step further for you? In some banks that I have to deal with, I can’t transfer money from a biz account to a personal account online. I can’t do it by linking the accounts…not by setting them up as a payee…nothing. So, if I wanted to move money from a chequing account to the credit card…in the same bank…I still have to go down to the branch and do it in person.

Don’t get me wrong, on some level I understand. If someone hacks your account, or some employee you just fired gets down to the bank before you’ve had their name removed, they can do less damage with these restraints in place. But once again, for the 99% of businesses that don’t encounter or cause this type of theft, it’s just a huge pain in the butt.

In another post, I’ll explain why these frequent trips to the branch can actually do some good. Until then, I’ll leave you with a simple plea to the Canadian banks.

I understand fraud is very real. If my account was cleaned out, I’d be devastated. But…setup a system with 2 simple rules.

1. Make it hard for anyone other than me to alter my account. Give me an electronic token, force me to use 20 character passwords…whatever. I’ll live with that.

2. Once you have proven that it’s me…let me do whatever I want with my money.

There we go…simple enough, eh?

Related posts:

1. Obligatory Bank Rant
2. The Government Wants You To Save Money on Bank Fees
3. Dear PayPal. This Canadian has a few requests.

Google Adwords is Google’s pay-per-click model meaning your ads can appear on the first page of Google for a number of given search terms that you select, but you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad.  As you set up your campaign, here are a few key things to keep in mind:

Critical Error #1 – Setting Up Campaigns and Ad Groups Wrong

Your campaign is the overarching theme of what you are advertising.  Say you sell men’s shoes.  Your campaign could simply be titled “men’s shoes”.  Your ad groups, however, need to be the specific niches within the theme like:

Men’s dress shoes

Men’s work shoes

Men’s’ running shoes

…etc.

Critical Error #2 – Not Using Negative Keywords

When building your keyword lists for your ad groups, you’ll also want to build negative keywords. These are words that you tell Adwords not to trigger your ads for like free, inexpensive, cheap, etc.

Simply click on the keyword tab, scroll to the bottom, and you’ll see where to enter the negative keywords.

Critical Error #3 – Not Split Testing Your Ads

You’ll never know what people respond to until you try different kinds of ad copy.  Do this: create two different ads for each ad group, run them for a couple weeks, and see which one does better.  Then, delete the weaker and try to outperform the stronger.  This will not only bring you more traffic, but Google will reward you by lowering your cost per click.

These few tips will help to create a better overall experience with your Adwords campaign.  Like I mentioned, there are many effective ways on how to advertise your business, but Adwords provides the quickest way to get to the first page of Google.

This guest post was contributed by Brandon Jones. Brandon Jones is a Google Certified Partner.  He publishes free internet marketing tips on his blog www.MyGoogleMarketing.net.

Related posts:

1. Changes to Google's LBC = Great News For Home-Based Businesses
2. Social Media & Your Small Business
3. Don’t Do This To Google Reader!!

I just wanted to let you know about a guest post I did over at the Freshbooks blog. They’re starting a Tax Thursday series over there, to help get you prepared for April. They’re kicking off the series with my post called “It’s never too early to prepare for tax season“.

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in reading, I hope you’ll check it out. If you don’t already, you should definitely start following their blog. They always have great advice for small business owners.

Related posts:

1. Let Freshbooks Help You With Your Tax Return
2. Freshbooks Experiment–The End is Near
3. Freshbooks–The Verdict

You may or may not have noticed that the frequency of posts here has diminished greatly over the past couple of months. I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing if you haven’t.

This site has been so effective in connecting me with business owners, that my bookkeeping workload has skyrocketed over the past 6 months. So much so, that I simply haven’t had a lot of time to devote to anything beyond client work. That’s not to say that I’m not taking on new clients. I think I just take too long to write each post.

This morning it got me thinking about advertising. In the beginning, that’s what this site was all about. I practically live online, and had a very small budget to get this business started. Getting a site with a blog up and running was always a big priority. Given the fact that I can work with people all over North America, running a traditional ad campaign was not only financially unfeasible, but inefficient.

The big surprise along the way was just how much I would enjoy updating the blog. It’s certainly grown to become something much more than just advertising for my bookkeeping services. It gives me a chance to connect with other great entrepreneurs. I’m sure I’ve learned more about business from all of you than you have from me.

That brings me to a question that I’m sure lots of businesses encounter. How much advertising should you be doing when you get close to your work limit?

Let’s say you teach music for a living. You’ve done a great job of marketing your school, and you’re schedule is completely full. Should you still advertise the school? If you have to keep sending people away when they call, does that increase demand, or just put people off?

When Nintendo had problems keeping enough Wii’s on the shelf, the demand skyrocketed. For the first year, anytime retail stores restocked their shelves, they were immediately snatched up, for fear that they’d be sold out again. This “difficulty” in keeping up with demand (I’m pretty sure they did all of this on purpose) caused it to be, in my opinion, a much bigger seller than it would have if they had flooded the market with units.

On the other hand, it can have the opposite effect. Sometimes people will just get tired of waiting, and will find another similar product or competing store. I’m sure plenty of families decided to buy a Playstation 3 or XBOX 360, instead of waiting for Nintendo to boost production.

What do you think? If you know you’re running out of products, or just hours in the day to devote to work, do you change your advertising?

Personally, I don’t think you should, but it all depends on how you handle the potential customers. The reason you started your business was to solve a problem. Yes, it was also to make a ton of money, but that’s the byproduct of solving the problem.

Before you reach capacity, you should reach out to peers in your market, and setup a referral network. Try to find a wide range of peers. If you reach your work limit, you’ll want to refer a prospective client to someone very similar to you. Other times you’ll be contacted by someone who needs help with an area of your field that you’re not as qualified for. Maybe you’re a great web designer, but you don’t know a lot about eCommerce sites. For a music teacher, maybe you specialize in rock, but your student is asking about jazz.

Just remember; this person is coming to you for help solving a problem. By referring them to someone else, you’re still helping. Although you didn’t get the payment, all they remember is that you helped them out. There’s a good chance that the next time they need help, they’ll ask you first. Eventually, you’ll be in a position to do the work yourself.

I’d like to hear your opinions. Do you have a referral network? Do you plan on starting one? Do you alter your advertising when your workload is full?

PS. If you’re a fellow bookkeeper, why not contact me so we can join forces?

No related posts.

1. I was a teen, and therefore accepted the fact that most places were going to treat me like a criminal.
2. I wasn’t usually buying anything so valuable that it required special attention or support.
3. If I was at a bank; I didn’t pay fees, and never had enough money to worry about.

Basically, my needs were small, as were my expectations.

Now that I’m older, I’m far more careful with every dollar I spend. Spending my paycheque on some new shoes or a car stereo made perfect sense at 16. Thinking about that now makes me want to go back in time and slap myself.

There’s also far more companies fighting for my attention. While there were only a handful of stores trying to sell me shoes at 16, there are hundreds who want me to test out their accounting software, WordPress plugin, or social media app.

Some of these companies think that a loud voice and a blowout sale is all they need to get my money. Thankfully, there are a select few who actually do it the right way.

Recent Example

Simply Accounting: I needed to use this for some client work recently. I’ve used it in the past, but Quickbooks has been my default for many years. So, I downloaded a trial copy so I could get a sense for what version would be the best choice.

A few days after starting my trial, I received an email and phone call from Mavys at Simply Accounting. Instead of the usual cookie-cutter welcome email, it was very friendly, and pointed me to information very specific to bookkeepers using their products.

Based solely on the quality of the email, I replied back and asked a question. This question was one that I had sent to Intuit and had been disappointed with their response.

The question

I am working with clients in both Canada and the US now. I haven’t had a need for a US version of Quickbooks or Simply yet, but it might come up in the future. My Quickbooks Pro Advisor membership gives me copies of the Canadian version, but not the US. I wanted to know if I had access to a US version of the software.

The responses

Intuit: No would have been a bad enough response. What I got was quite a bit more disappointing. First off, no, I don’t have access to a US version of the software. Furthermore, I would have to contact someone at Intuit in the US and purchase it separately. I couldn’t even get the product from my contact in Canada. Finally, I was told that installing both versions on the same computer causes problems, so they recommended I have 2 computers setup, so that I could run each version on its own computer. Seriously? Who would buy a 2nd computer just to run another accounting app?

Simply Accounting: Mavys, who is officially my favourite person at Simply Accounting had a much better response. When I’m ready to buy my copy, all I need to do is ask, and she will make sure I have both the US and Canadian versions included…at no extra cost. Plus, there are no issues running both apps on the same system.

Now what?

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. One question answered well doesn’t mean I’m suddenly dropping Quickbooks. I’ve been using it for years, and I know all of the keyboard shortcuts.

On the other hand, Simply is now on my radar again. I’m going to buy a slightly more expensive version than I had originally intended, in order to sign up for their equivalent of Intuit’s Pro Advisor program. Like anything new, I resist it because of the unfamiliarity. However, there’s no guarantee that, once I’ve become accustomed to it, I won’t end up liking it more.

The simple fact is that a phone call and email that took less than 5 minutes has resulted in $400 worth of sales and a blog post.

Now it’s your turn

Instead of a stock auto-responder (or  nothing at all), why not spend the time to personalize your interactions with your new customers? Take 5 minutes to learn something about them. You can do this by crafting a better contact form (something I need to do), or checking out their website. Then, take that information, and spend another 5 minutes writing a more tailored email, welcoming them to your product/service.

It doesn’t seem like much, but with so many people fighting for your customer base, every little gesture helps.

Do you have any good tips? Have you figured out a way to gain customers by adding a personal touch to your interactions? Please share your advice in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Don’t forget an important task again.

Apparently, said kid password protected their netbook recently. I don’t have the password, and can’t contact them right now. Hmmm. Ok…I’ve got another PC upstairs. It’s old, but it’s about the same speed as a netbook. Problem solved, and here I am, typing away.

There are going to be lots of times when we are faced with constraints. Sometimes it’s our time that’s constrained, other times it’s money or skills or environment. Instead of letting them stop us from success, we need to start including them in our plans.

If you’re not this person, you know somebody like this. They use the phrase “as soon as” or “if I could only just” quite often. They have a great plan for their business, but it all hinges on several distant goals being achieved. Until those perfect conditions are met, well there’s just no way they can be expected to succeed, right?

Plan ahead

Thankfully, I knew that my laptop wasn’t going to be with me this morning. So, I did a lot of work last night in QuickBooks, since that’s the one app I can’t access from just any computer. If you know there’s a hurdle approaching, plan for it. And by plan, I don’t mean plan for a day off.

If you know your car is in the shop next week, plan for alternatives.

• rent a car

• find someone else to run your errands that day

• research public transit (times, cost, locations, etc.)

You’re already going to be slightly less efficient, so don’t add planning and research to your day.

Maintain a Plan B

Although I like my computer, I only have 1 app that sits on my desktop that I can’t replace. All of my files are synced with Dropbox. My bookmarks are synced with XMarks, and my passwords with LastPass. I also sync all of my Chrome settings, so one login and I’ve got all of my settings and extensions installed on a new computer. I’ve even got my iPhone setup so that I don’t really need to sync it anymore. I have apps for podcasts, books, and music, so I could be without my computer for weeks before my phone would be affected.

For example, let’s say you run a retail business. What happens if the power goes out, or if the network goes down? Do your employees know how to handwrite a receipt? Do they know how to manually process a credit card? Heck, are there batteries in flashlights in case you need to help customers get out of a dark store?

Constraints can be a good thing

I can’t get too distracted on this computer. It’s slow, so if I want Chrome to run smoothly, I can’t have 20 tabs open. If you’re riding the bus, you can’t just pull over and check out that sale. Constraints, while frustrating at times, help us focus on what’s important. If you can only do 1 thing at a time, you’re going to focus on the most important thing. And, if you have the right systems in place, you’ll have multiple ways of doing that 1 thing, regardless of what life throws at you.

Related posts:

1. Does your small business have a Plan B?

I remember vividly the “fun” of buying on eBay before I had a PayPal account. It was so much “fun” driving down to the bank to get a money order, paying the $5-7 fee, driving to the post office, mailing out the money order…and waiting. Waiting the week or so to have something shipped is hard enough, but having to wait the extra week before the seller even received my payment? Purely infuriating.

Despite my love of this method of financial transaction, I have a few bones to pick.

I suppose I could go off on the “trust” aspect of PayPal. Many people don’t fully trust them, and I suppose I should be less trusting too. However, I don’t trust that my dogs will stay out of the trash while I’m gone…haven’t gotten rid of them either.

No, my frustrations lie once again with features available based on geographic location. Apparently in the US, your PayPal accounts are pretty close to full bank accounts. Up here in Canada, they sometimes feel more savings bonds or coin collections. Sure, there’s money in there, but I just can’t get to it when I want to.

There are 3 key features that I would like the folks at PayPal to deliver North just as soon as possible.

Debit Cards

Ok, we actually had this…very briefly. When I got my first PayPal account years ago, I also got a PayPal MasterCard. It was a debit card, and I could use it like any other debit card, but with the funds in my PayPal account. Unfortunately, back then, I was only buying things online, so there was never any money in the account. By the time I started selling on eBay, they had discontinued the debit card program.

This is my biggest request for PayPal. Being someone who harps about cash flow regularly, not having instant access to my money is frustrating.

Shorter Wait Times for Transfers

Alright, so we don’t have debit cards. Fine. At least I can move my money to an account that does. For some reason, in Canada, our wait times are higher. In my account, I’m given the option to transfer my balance to a Canadian or US bank account. The former takes 5-7 business days, while the latter takes 3-5. Transferring money into my PayPal account is even worse. It takes 6-8 days from a Canadian account vs. 3-5 for a US account.

If a client pays me via PayPal, that means it could take 7 business days for the money to be in an account I can use. In any businesses, that’s a long time to wait.

Bill Me Later

Ideal for small businesses, “Bill Me Later” let’s you purchase items through PayPal on terms. Let’s say you need supplies for a job that you’re not getting paid for in advance. You could get the supplies immediately, and then pay for them when you get paid. While it’s always better to pay up front, there are times when this feature would be really helpful.

Alright PayPal, now it’s your turn. I don’t know what sort of red tape stands in your way. I’m sure, just like Spotify and Diet Cherry Pepsi, there’s some crazy reason Canada won’t let you in. All I’m saying is that I would use your services much more (that means more $$ for you) if you had these features in place. I don’t think I’m alone.

Related posts:

1. What are your favourite Canadian companies?
2. Getting back to basics: setting up bank accounts.

Do you ever feel like your city isn’t on the same page technologically as you are? When I’m on Twitter or LinkedIn, people are using the technology to connect with their customers, vendors, and fans. Connections are made over Skype, and bills are paid with PayPal. It’s understood that voicemail is a pain, and that waiting in line for bad customer service is heresy. Sure, it’s chaotic, but yet somehow it all makes sense.

Then I step outside, and everything changes.

I don’t live in a big city. I suppose I shouldn’t expect to step out into a technological utopia. Still, why aren’t more small businesses trying to join the 21st Century? I hear people joke about the Yellow Pages, but that’s where I still have to go to find what I need.

Just yesterday, I wanted to email our vet. I know there’s a business card somewhere in this house, and it has their email address on it. I couldn’t find it, so I went online to search their site. I finally found it and…no email address on the site. What?

For some reason, I use Foursquare. I like to try out new things, so I check in to my location every once in a while. I’m even the Mayor of a few spots. From what I hear, this means I might be entitled to some type of discount or VIP status. In my town, I don’t think the owners of any of these businesses even know about Foursquare, let alone the fact that I’m currently the Mayor of their store.

I will admit, I’d take this to an extreme level if given the chance. When I see a kid running a lemonade stand, I want to tell him to setup a website, tweet the location, setup a Facebook event, and give discounts to people who “check in” to the stand. This is usually where my family gives me “the look”, and tries to tune me out. Fair enough.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that feels this way? Tell me that the lack of tech adoption in your town drives you crazy too. No, seriously…if this drives you crazy…please tell me in the comments. I need proof for my friends and family that I’m not the only one.

No related posts.

That aspect is marketing. By marketing, I’m referring to the more traditional, Don Draper style of marketing. I’m not naturally good at coming up with a catch phrase and designing a visual marketing campaign around it. Thankfully, nobody looks for a bookkeeper to help them shoot their next commercial. If you’re like me, and you run your own business, I’ve got good news for you. In the opinion of several people, including myself, this isn’t the best way to find new clients and customers.

So, what’s an introvert with a skill suppose to do? How do you grow your business if the idea of talking in front of a camera terrifies you?

Word of Mouth

There are 3 factors that led me to this post.

1. Life experience

No matter what crazy ideas I’ve had, or ads I’ve placed, most of my work over the years has come from a referral. Sometimes a current client will recommend me to a friend. More recently, I’ve had people read this blog, and recommend me to a friend.

2. The Referral Engine

This book really sums up what I probably knew, but just didn’t know how to put into words. John Jantsch is the author of what has become one of my favourite business books. If you run your own business, but don’t have a strategy to handle referrals, you should go get this book.

3. A recent post

I just read a good post at The Freelance Bookkeeper that talks about this very topic. It reminded me that I hadn’t written about this before. Sure, it’s about bookkeepers, but the information is quite universal.

Why is so effective?

It’s simple, really. If you need a new car, do you trust the 53 spam emails from steve94285@example.com telling you to buy a Toyota? Or do you listen to the one close friend who tells you that the Nissan they’ve had for the past 10 years has been amazing. Exactly.

The real beauty of this is what happens next. Are you really good at your trade, but lousy at marketing? Guess what? The thing that will guarantee you more referrals…is being really good at your trade. Your customers are much more likely to tell a friend because you did great work for them than because they really liked your newspaper ad.

Sure, if you are just starting out, and don’t have any customers, you’ll need to run some ads. But once you’ve got them in the door, the best way to grow is by treating them better than anyone else in your field does. A quality product will trump a big ad campaign. No matter how many times I see an ad for McDonald’s, it will never make their burgers taste as good as the ones at Five Guys.

Do you have a referral strategy in your small business? I’d love to hear about it.

No related posts.

Most of the time, pouring over my site stats and analytics is a waste of time. I usually just end up obsessing over why more people read last Tuesday’s post than yesterday’s, or something else equally trivial. One little nugget that I find very useful is the search terms that people use before they end up at the site. Today’s “Ask ThatBookkeeper” question is one of those search terms.

Whose job is it to use Freshbooks?

This isn’t exactly how it was worded in the search term. Basically, this person was searching to figure out if the bookkeeper or client was meant to be using Freshbooks, which I thought was an interesting question.

The short answer is that it’s the client, not the bookkeeper, that is meant to run Freshbooks. The bookkeeper will often reference that Freshbooks data, but it’s not intended to replace bookkeeping software. On the surface, it may seem strange that there’s a bookkeeping app that’s meant for the client. However, when you look at it closer, you realize that this is how we’ve done things for a long time.

In the past, a salesperson would hand write invoices when they were out in the field. In most cases, it was too cumbersome to lug around a computer and printer to a client’s office or house. When they got back to the office at the end of the day, they would submit their invoices, which would end up on the bookkeeper’s desk. The same went for expenses. The salesperson would keep receipts from fuel, meals, travel and supplies. In some cases, they were required to submit a proper expense report along with those receipts.

Fast forward to today. Hand written invoices and expense reports aren’t gone…but they should be. This is where an invoicing app like Freshbooks or Blinksale comes in.

It’s trivial to bring your smartphone when you visit a client. With it, and the right app, you can handle everything. You can create an invoice on-site that can be emailed directly to your customer. That same smartphone can snap pictures of receipts. Those pictures can be included with relevant details, and forwarded directly to your bookkeeper, whether they’re back at the office or somewhere across the country. Now, at the end of the day, 2 things have improved.

1. You’re work as the salesperson is done. You don’t need to create an Excel report or drop off copies of the invoices.

1. The bookkeeper has almost real-time access to the sales and expense information. This means that instead of always being at least a day behind, the whole system has accurate sales information on the same day it was generated.

Related posts:

1. Freshbooks Experiment – Invoicing
2. Freshbooks Experiment – Reporting
3. Freshbooks–The Verdict